College roundup: Cal Poly shutout at home in women's soccer loss to Long Beach State

Based on Friday’s results — four matches, four overtimes and two ties — Big West Conference women’s soccer couldn’t be more competitive.

When the two lone teams to come away with a victory on opening night met up Sunday, however, it was a completely different story.

Struggling to gain control of the ball or generate many offensive chances, Cal Poly (7-5-1) dropped to .500 in the Big West with a 6-0 loss to visiting Long Beach State in front of 567 at Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

The 49ers (9-3-1, 2-0-0 Big West) led 2-0 at halftime, scored twice more in the second helf and got two late goals by substitute Marysol Rosas in the final 4 minutes to complete the blowout.

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“Up until this point, we had been getting pretty good rhythm in the attack, keeping the space close,” Cal Poly head coach Alex Crozier said, “but it kind of just unraveled as the game went.”

The performance “was definitely pretty flat,” Crozier added, “and we paid for it. Against a pretty good team, you can’t do that.”

Long Beach State senior Shawna Gordon, who had two goals and one assist two days after scoring the winning goal less than a minute into overtime of a 2-1 victory at UC Santa Barbara, said the breaking point came with the third score Sunday.

After missing on a couple first-half chances, Nadia Link scored unassisted for her 11th goal of the season in the 66th minute, and the Mustangs’ hopes of a comeback dwindled.

In the end, the 49ers outshot Cal Poly 19-9 with a 14-5 advantage in shots on goal. The Mustangs only had two shots in the first half, when Long Beach State held possession for all but a few minutes combined.

“Our gameplan this season is keeping the ball and working on combinations,” Gordon said. “This group of girls that we have, that’s our game. A lot of us are real technical, and we try to just focus on that.”

Though they came away with a win at Santa Barbara, the 49ers were disappointed when that match went to overtime considering how they held the Gauchos without a shot in the first half.

Tiffany Gummow had two shots on goal to lead Cal Poly but ended a streak during which she had scored six goals in the past five matches.

The Mustangs also received the dubious honor of allowing twice as many goals as their previous season high.

Cal Poly had given up three goals four times — all losses — this season and had only been shut out one other time, a 3-0 defeat to Santa Clara in August.

With conference road trips to Cal State Northridge and UC Irvine coming up this week, Crozier is hoping Sunday’s loss doesn’t linger.

“The score is the score,” Crozier said. “Whether it’s one-nothing or six-nothing, it’s kind of irrelevant. From the outside looking in, you take second notice, but we didn’t do what we had been doing well.

“We just need to move forward from here.”

MEN’S TENNISDe Jager wins consolation singles title in Fresno

Cal Poly sophomore Jurgen De Jager won the Flight B Consolation Championship of the Fresno State Bulldog Classic with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Pacific’s Eric Cederwell on Sunday.

In a tournament that started on Friday, De Jager went undefeated in four straight matches.